Alternatives to Pibull clamps

[dstryr]

Building some fixtures and need around 200-400 1/4 pitbull clamps depending on what I decide to do. Mitebite wants $11-12.500 a clamp assembly.... Turns into some serious money at those numbers.

Anything similar around? I'm about to build my own.

 

[THEE THAINZ™]

Try Jergens

[Newbeeee™]

Quick pre-op tapping a hole in each end and pull back with bolts?

Use 1x plate per face - yes you get more wastage of mtl but quicker to load and 5metre feed rates it doesn't take long to remove the excess?

[dstryr]

Quick pre-op tapping a hole in each end and pull back with bolts?

Use 1x plate per face - yes you get more wastage of mtl but quicker to load and 5metre feed rates it doesn't take long to remove the excess?

Not sure I follow?

[dstryr]

Cutting aluminum
Have .125 of material to grip on.
The material to grip on gets cut away so biting in is required to hold it down during milling. I like to have one side push it against the hard stop in the fixture and some clamps on the opposite side to really make sure it won't lift.

Distance between bars is 1". Could prob go to 1.25-1.5. I have a smaller version of this fixture running now using 7 8-32 pitbulls running now. 4 to push it against the fixture stop. 3 to bite down at the end.

[Guest]

. Mitebite wants $11-12.500 a clamp assembly.... Turns into some serious money at those numbers.

Anything similar around? I'm about to build my own.

 

They are worth every penny and I think that's about it unless you make your own.

[dstryr]

Looks like I'll be making my own. Can't bring myself to spend $2k on them at one time and haven't found anything similar. Going to make my own "double" style for between parts.

[specv]

I'm don't know what your shop rate is, but making them for less than you can buy them for is going to tough (at least for us it would be). Not to mention that now your machine will be tied up not making you profit. But that's just me I guess. 

 

Also the talon grips work great between parts like this. 

[THEE THAINZ™]

Carr Lane has clamps that are similar to Pit bull clamps. You might want to see what they can do for you price wise.

[djstedman]

I'm don't know what your shop rate is, but making them for less than you can buy them for is going to tough (at least for us it would be). Not to mention that now your machine will be tied up not making you profit. But that's just me I guess. 

 

Also the talon grips work great between parts like this.

 

 

I remember when I was about 20 an older guy once told me something that stuck with me, the biggest mistake most people make in business is not accounting for the cost of their own time.

 

I think specv is right, between machine time, material and your own time and lost production time, these self made clamps are going to cost you more than purchasing them in the long run.

[mikenaturalice]

Looks like I'll be making my own. Can't bring myself to spend $2k on them at one time and haven't found anything similar. Going to make my own "double" style for between parts.

Have you contacted MiteeBite or a distributor? I would imagine you could work out a discount if you do need to order 400 at once. I am with you on cost though, last fixture I started designing got very expensive when I figured for hardware and machining time...

[dstryr]

I have my own small shop that is never at 100% full capacity. Always have atleast 1 brother vertical idle . Plan is to make a ton of these using the 4th axis and just part off on the machine / clean up with a swipe of a file. I think I can make them for less than $6.00 easily after run time, material, and heat treat. We will see . I would use a ton more of these clamps if they weren't so damn expensive. They are very reasonable buying 30 at a time or so but after its all said and done I'll need about 250 of them right now...Could use another 250 in another month or so.

 

 

 

I did contact my local distributor. $12 each was the best they can do.

[jeff]

Looks like I'll be making my own. Can't bring myself to spend $2k on them at one time and haven't found anything similar. Going to make my own "double" style for between parts.

Just add $2,000 to your next quote. 

Problem solved.  

[taperlength]

Seven clamps and 32 parts. That's a lot of clamping and unclamping.

[Joe957]

do you really need that many per part? Have you tried using less?  I hold a 120lb block of AL cutting 80-85% load on a 30hp machine with just 4 of the 1/4-20 clamps..

[dstryr]

I ended up just biting the bullet and buying them. I was planning on using 5 1/4-20 pitbulls. 3 on the front to push it against the hard stop. then 2 on the back for extra security. Bars are 18" long.

Each bar holds 4 parts you don't see